The purpose of our family blog is to share our life journey with family and friends. Our family consists of Ben and Barbara (married Dec 2002), Caroline (born Sept 2006), Andrew (born Feb 2009) and Dixie (our dog). We hope that you will enjoy following us and all of our adventures and mishaps!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Caroline was having a bad night - acting out, talking back, etc. We were out to eat at Wendy's and Ben finally broke it to her that her attitude and actions had just ruined her chance of getting a frosty. As you can expect this did not go over well, so Ben took her out to the van for a little "chat."

Ben: Caroline, I'm sorry we were unable to get a frosty and had to come out to the car. If I didn't know better, I'd say you are acting like the "baby" in there.Caroline: But, I'm not a "ba-by" daddy (pause, kicks up her feet)... See daddy, I have my BIG Girl shoes on!! (smile)Ben: sigh* (smirk)Caroline: I just act out when I am tired. We get back to the car and Caroline says: I'm sorry I was acting out Mommy. I'm just kinda tired that's all.You have to love this age (smile)!

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Last weekend we experienced another FIRST for the Appling clan. We were invited to go camping with friends and in an effort to include the kids and do it on a budget - the decision was made to just keep it simple and camp in the Carr's backyard. Now if we had done this in our backyard, this would seem quite silly since we would basically be sleeping on bermuda grass with no big trees or leaves to be found. BUT, Jon & Bonnie, on the other hand, managed to create an entire campsite in their backyard.

The campsite included two large tents, a real fire pit, and even trees to nestle the tents into. Their backyard is a wide, long rectangular shape so where the campsite was carved out, you could not even see the house. This was really key in making our campout seem "real." We did all of the typical camping activities - made hobo dinners (silver turtles as Bonnie calls them), s'mores, used flashlights, slept in sleeping bags and stayed up late chatting in camp chairs. Although, I will mark this as the first Appling family campout, Andrew might have to do a redo for his memory book -- he and Emily cheated and slept in the house in the comfort of a crib and pack n' play. The girls sacked out around 9pm and the adults held out until midnight.

We all had a great time and awoke around 7:30 the next morning, but instead of coffee brewing over the fire, we decided to do breakfast on the stove...so yes, we did cheat a little bit! It just made for easier clean-up (at least that is how Jon put it).

One funny story from the night: Caroline did not go to the bathroom before going to bed and I told Bonnie that she may wake up in the night and need to go (the girls slept in their tent - another nice treat for us). Around 3:30 am Caroline woke up and said, "I need to go tee-tee!" Bonnie called out, "Bar-ba-ra!" I am such a sound sleeper that I didn't hear a thing...but Ben jumped up to help out and when he did, Caroline and Bonnie were already headed toward the house. We all laughed about this since I had predicted this would happen, yet I slept through it all.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

So yesterday from about 4-5pm was the longest day of my life. Here's what was going on - Caroline doing everything and anything to annoy Andrew, Andrew crying because he was tired but there was no time to nap again before church, Caroline crying because Andrew was crying, Caroline with her nose in the corner, Andrew poking Caroline while she was in the corner, Caroline getting aggrevated with Andrew....you get the picture! Yes, my head was throbbing and I was reminding myself to stay calm and not overreact, to exhibit Christ in how I treat my children and to remember "I am the Mommy not the child!"

Well, things smoothed over after dinner - perhaps everyone was just hungry and acting out because of it. We were trying to get out the door and I had both kids in the car. I told the kids that I had to run back inside really quick to put Dixie in her room. When I got back to the car, this was Caroline's insight on the situation:

"You know Mommy if you had of put Dixie in her room 'before' we came out to the car, you would not have had to run back inside."My response: "Yes, you are right. I'll have to remember that for next time. Thank you for reminding me." I know she was right, but Arghhh! is what I was thinking in my head. I have trained that girl too well and she really does constantly remind me of my own rules and tidbits of advice. Gotta love a 4 yr old that is so wise :)

Glad I was off to a Parenting class at church that night. I need it!

Got any advice on how to 'parent' preschoolers. What works for you and your family?